Two teenagers are sitting in jail after having been arrested for having guns outside the gymnasium of Lawrence Central High School on Tuesday.
A shooting happened moments before their arrest in the parking lot outside where the annual Lawrence North-Lawrence Central boys basketball rivalry game was taking place. No one was hurt in the shooting.
Investigators say a fight had started in the parking lot as the game was ending and things apparently escalated into two gunshots being fired. That’s when security workers and police enacted what they trained for.
“I don’t think we could have done anything differently,” said Jim Parish, the director of security for MSD Lawrence Township, on WISH-TV. “From the time the shot was fired, within less than three minutes we made apprehension on two people with weapons. I don’t think we could have done anything better than that.”
One of those teenagers had a Glock handgun that had what is known as a “Glock switch” on it. That’s a device that makes a semi-automatic handgun fully automatic. That is why that teenager is facing a charge of possessing a machine gun.
“That is an increasing level of concern,” said Gary Woodruff, deputy police chief of Lawrence. “What led to that glock switch getting applied to this particular firearm? Was it obtained that way? Those are far too readily available, especially in the hands of juveniles.”
It’s unclear if the Glock switch was engaged when the shooting happened. Woodruff guesses that the switch was not a factor in the shooting since only two shots were fired. Nevertheless, he says the level of concern remains.
He says forensic investigators are looking at the shell casings collected to determine more about the shots that were fired.